Friday, May 19, 2006

'Da Vinci Code' is a horror film as far as I'm concerned, because Tom Hanks is in it. It's frightening that this guy still gets movie roles.—Ahhh memories... the sweet smell of Renosa, Mexico. Nothing better than a few Carta Blanca's @ La Academia de Billares.

Monday, May 15, 2006

11:17 pmKanka just thru me this photo from across the hotel room here in Chatt town via BLUETOOTH - the pirate... well he's not really a pirate... its just a computer chip talking shit from one computer to the other. Anyhow.... it's a better frontal of me lighting a'blaze 'Carmella De' for the first time. I set it ablaze several times that day. It's the annihilationist in me... after all... I am the upstart of annihilationism... it's mine mine mine.—4:22 pmMy god the work is just flowing suddenly and things have become clear. I don't know what has changed in my life since this weekend, but something clicked and the drive is here. I knocked out 'Carmella De' (minus the 100 or so more ladybugs I need to put on it, the piece is going to be engorged with them... yes the real thing). Also got to work on a second piece similar in dimensions to Carmella. The other stunner is that I also brought to near completion two other works that I thought were just totally lost... all on Saturday!!! Because I was able to create Carmella, it's allowed me to finally dive head-first into these complex 'combines' I've been working on bit-by-bit... the only issue is that I've already run out of wiring and circuit boards to tear up and glue into the works. I'm gonna have to hit 2 locations to find this source material on the cheap and easy... Goodwill/Salvation Army and the auto junkyards. I figure I'll be able to pick up lots of outdated electronic crap at the thrifts and then hit the auto jards to get the miles of wiring and random metal junk I need.I'm just in this totally different mind set since I created this Carmella piece (going to get some good pictures to post when I finish it). I also added some more components (a secondary set of horns) to the 'Spreads' work 'Fundamentals Of Meat Abandonment'. That's the piece I wrapped in the brown leather mini-shirt one of my ex's left behind. Still haven't finished it yet... but it's getting there... no thanks to Carmella. It's all a matter of getting the materials gathered and pressing into these works again... it's just all making sense suddenly. What's refreshing is that it's a much more mature and complex version of works I created back in college and after the fact... such as 'Mother Machree' 1996 and 'Archie Bunkers Descent Into Hell" 1999.Kanka looked at 'Carmella De' saturday evening after I temporarily hung it on the wall and after looking at it for a few minutes he exclaimed, "I think you have some serious mental issues." I guess... but don't we all. And if it takes mental issues to continue to produce works of this caliber then label me crazy, cause it's working for me right now.—I'm also coming really close to finishing up the large Blue Jughead triptych. A few touch ups of blue here and there... then a coat of poly-U. I then have to wrangle my funds to get the 3 neon lights made for it. I've decided to go with a red neon, wrapped horizontally flush across the facing of each panel. What they will say I'm still not sure of, but I know that neon is the key. I considered building them with a similar lighting structure used in 'Dance - Dance - Dance', but I just don't think the alternating marquee lighting senario would work as well... plus if the other work could cause seizures, I'd hate to see that same scheme done 500% bigger. And truthfully, I really don't feel like wiring that electrical setup again. of course where i'm gonna put the transformers the neon needs is beyond me still as well.—The 2 fluoride monochrome oils are coming along as well. I've almost finished the first of 2 quadrents on each work, but they are still going to take a lot of time beacuse of the details, even though they are monochromes. I'd hoped to have these done by the end of year, but we'll see. I can't really expect sooner as there are several other works that need to be completed.—Headed to Chattanooga tonight to prep for a photoshot I'm directing tues - wed... should be fun. Looking forward to getting my IPA beer tonight at Big River Grill... haven't had it in ages. PLUS soft pretzels with beer mustard... ohh jesus that stuffs so fuckin' good. So some beer, some food, some games a pool... a hotel within walking distance... ohh yeah and the excellent company of one Mr. Kanka. We're gonna drink a few tonight I'm sure.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Hung out in the studio all of yesterday with Kanka. So while he proceeded to paint his favorite Holga camera gold with spray paint, I spent the day building this work seen in its developmental stages below. It's called 'Carmella De'. It's a complex mixed media piece that measures 6" x 38" (15.24 x 96.52cm). All I need to do to finish it now is paint the box framing. I'm going to use the same green on white stripe that is evident in the painting.—

Thursday, May 11, 2006

I am everything. I am everywhere. I am infinite....even in communist Cuba.—Arrggg... paint - paint - paint... that's all I've been doing lately. But I'm optimistic that I'll start hitting some real milestones on works in the next few weeks. Milestones that I've been working toward on some works for over 3 years in fact. Finishing work is one thing, an extremely difficult one at that, but the real situational comedy for the modern artist (at least one that wholely supports themselves through their work) arises when one attempts to find a suitable venue to display the work. Even harder is getting the masses to attend this debacle. And the hardest issue one faces is selling the work... that is if you're interested in making money on it, but there is also more than making money in a transaction such as that (at least for myself... maybe that's why I've been giving so much of my work away this year). So... last night I was sitting in my living room on my new furniture (note: There will be a ritualistic burning of the shit furniture an unnamed relation {mother} left at my house soon or I'll just dump it this weekend somewhere)... and I need a few pinball machines too, fuck a dining room set... preferably Bally's from 1960's -1970's but anyways, so I'm sitting on my new furniture reading another PKD book and I started to get the idea in my head that I'm just really tired of doing all this work. I've been pondering this fruitcake-logic for a quite a few months now. The consistant/constant generation of ideas and then emergance of material objects that serve no real purpose, except unto themselves. So I'm sitting there thinking this and then the next thing I know, I some how realize that I'm in my studio (which is finally finished) fiddling away at some set of works. And at that second it hits me... I realize that I don't remember even walking into the studio and starting work, but I had been doing it for almost 3 hours at that point. I walked back into the house and there was the book on the couch with it's bookmark in place. Now, I wasn't drunk. I wasn't high on drugs. I wasn't taking Ambian. I simply don't remember getting up from that couch and walking to the studio. I don't remember unpacking the materials I was currently working on. Nothing. There had been an obvious physical action applied to the works and they had advanced to a stage I hadn't even considered some 5 months previous when I packed them away, yet it was the right solution. A solution that I had obviously arrived at by myself. And it hits me... that thing that I'm always saying to myself everytime I get down on my work or life... which is pretty frequent lately. It's that one thing that really stuck with me since I read that Hirst book 4 years ago 'On The Way To Work'. That damn'd simple, but marinated in truth ideal that Van Gogh said. The artist is always 'on the way to work'... that's the only logic I can use to explain why I suddenly manifested myself in the studio in the act of work, despite that fact that I was internally struggling with the idea of 'on the way to work' some 3 hours earlier. Strange things are afoot in the house of Schaefer. So to elucidate on the statement I made at the beginning of this post 'I am everything. I am everywhere. I am infinite'. It just makes sense. — Err maybe it was VALIS transmitting the information to me via a pink laser beam to my skull... ohh wait that was PKD. Whatever the situation I'm wondering if i wake in the middle of the night and work in that studio unbenounced to myself. I already have the problem of waking up in the morning with 3x5 index cards scrawled with concepts for work on a daily basis over the past few months. This too, I don't remember doing, but the cards are neatly written by my hand, some even with percise diagrams. I must have been 'on my way to work' when I did those too I suppose. I just don't know... somethings gotta give... things are just really unfamiliar at this point in my life. I need some kind of ordered semblance for all the shit in my head. Noctural emissions are supposed to come from your dick when you're asleep... not manifect as ideas on index cards or application to displaced projects.—MAILING TRANSFERRALMay 11, 2005—————BARKER - Villians 8 (postcard w/ 2-1" pins)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

"I think that the question of whether a work makes sense or not, or whether it needs explaining or not, is answered over time. If it emerges that it makes no sense and isn't even aesthetically interesting then it might as well be thrown into the trash. I may have certain opinions, which I use to create a certain sculpture. And I'm not obliged to explain those opinions or that statue. What I am obliged to do is explain it to myself. Secondly, I think that it's important not to explain certain things and instead leave it to whomever is looking at it to try to figure out and to say 'What the fuck is this?'. Besides, the whole explaining of art thing employs enough people anyway." — David Cerny—MAILING TRANSFERRALMay 10, 2005—————BARKER - Villians 7 (postcard w/ (2) 1" pins)

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Spent the weekend painting, developing correspondence and reading more of my PKD books. Not much progress was made in either front, do majorly to the fact that I enjoyed my sleeping hours more than I did my waking ones. Ohh well, there is always another day for work around the corner. Or wait... actually aren't I supposed to be 'on my way to work'. I did however, order new bulbs for my opaque projector, which is a task that has been almost 10 years in the making. They weren't easy to find pre-online shopping era. 1000w - 120v bulbs.... 2 of them. That way when the first one blows, I won't have to order another one. The damn things cost $30 a pop. Just crazy. I hope my boys at the USPS don't break them in transit. I could actually buy the same projector I have, a big hunk'n green metal bastard from the 1960's, on Ebay for the say price as a single bulb. Actually... thats not a bad idea. If I did that I could return the one I have been borrowing for the past 11 years back to my high school. On second thought...

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

—I'm getting so sick of this 'Illegal Immigratation' shit. I saw this one illigal yesterday holding a sign that read - "No Illegals = No Burritos". So I'm sitting here thinking, is this guy for real. I know how to make a fucking burrito you idiot... I also know how to make a taco. So wait... are all the Taco Bells across the US gonna close because there are no illegals to make the food? I guess I'm just really confused with the message. Was it supposed to be funny... clever... I just think it's kinda weak. How about "No Illegals = No Pointless Protests"... please people... you're protesting to the wrong people. Why not try a rally in front of the Mexican Consulate... that might actually be meaningful. You're not shutting anything down with you're inane antics.Ohh yeah... by the way... guy with a sign. I went out and got a burrito for lunch at Taco Bell. It was delicious... and guess what, it wasn't made by an illegal. Wow, I'm confused now... how can that be. Simple... it was made by a young black girl and served to me by a young white guy. Wait that's not possile!!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Spent a relaxing evening oil painting. I totally forgot how fast time goes when doing this type of work. It was close to 10pm when I left the studio to get some food. Didn't even realize the time. I spent a little time later wrapping up some postcards for mailing this week and making some buttons for people. Pretty easy night... turning in soon. I did wash out my brushes too!